


Yellow Card

by crazychipmunk



Series: Lovers' Quarrel [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 402, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Manga Spoilers, Secret Relationship, competitive husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:42:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25390300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazychipmunk/pseuds/crazychipmunk
Summary: "A yellow card? How do you manage to get a yellow card in international competition? I didn’t know refs even carried them around anymore."Team Argentina starting setter Tohru Oikawa is known to fight with Team Japan's athletic trainer Hajime Iwaizumi during matches, but no one can figure out why.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Series: Lovers' Quarrel [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1845244
Comments: 98
Kudos: 1896
Collections: Behold the Sacred Texts, Creative Chaos Discord Recs





	Yellow Card

The Argentina national volleyball team had a sportsmanship problem. Specifically, they had a sportsmanship problem whenever they played Japan. It was perfectly reasonable, of course, that their Japanese-born starting setter, Tohru Oikawa, had strong feelings towards his former countrymen. Something had happened to Oikawa back in Japan that made him drop everything he knew and move halfway across the world at the tender age of eighteen.

Oikawa’s teammates knew little about their setter’s high school and middle school volleyball career other than it was largely unremarkable. It was hard to imagine that Argentina’s biggest volleyball superstar had never even qualified for nationals back in Japan. But whenever asked about it, Oikawa would simply go on a rant about someone named Ushiwaka and someone else called Tobio-chan. After a while, the team had pieced together that Ushiwaka was opposite hitter Wakatoshi Ushijima and Tobio-chan was starting setter Tobio Kageyama. Both were from Miyagi like Oikawa, so it made sense that Oikawa was constantly shooting them dirty looks through the net like an angry high schooler.

What the Argentinian team did not understand, however, was Oikawa’s fixation with the Japan national team’s athletic trainer. The intense look Oikawa got whenever Ushijima blocked his set was nothing compared to the rage that exploded out of Oikawa when the Japanese trainer so much as suggested that his serve was out of bounds.

Once, Kageyama successfully pulled off a setter’s dump that gave Japan the advantage in a deuce and Oikawa had glared at him like he wanted to grind the opposing setter to dust. It was terrifying and the Argentinians wondered how Kageyama managed to keep his composure enough to serve an ace right after.

However, that was nothing compared to later on in the same match, when a bad first pass caused the set to leave Oikawa’s fingers with the slightest hint of a spin. The Japanese trainer put up two fingers, asking the referee to call a double. The referee waved it off but after the point was won, Oikawa grabbed the net with both hands and started loudly yelling at the trainer in Japanese. His teammates had no idea what kind of abuse Oikawa was subjecting the poor man to, but Team Japan’s trainer merely shot back a shit-eating grin while shouting something in Japanese that sounded suspiciously like “Shitty-kawa” according to the libero whose knowledge of Japanese was exclusively curse words from anime fight scenes. 

After the “Shitty-kawa” incident, Oikawa’s teammates scoured the internet for information about Team Japan’s athletic trainer. They had put their heads and figured out why Oikawa hated Kageyama and Ushijima so much, they could do the same for the Japanese trainer who seemed capable for making Oikawa blow a gasket just by looking at him. But after hours of bad Google translate on Japanese volleyball forums, all they had managed to glean was that the trainer’s name was Hajime Iwaizumi.

Turns out, unless you’re a world-famous volleyball player sponsored by an international curry brand, there is very little information about you on the public internet. The team sighed and hoped that whomever Hajime Iwaizumi was to Oikawa, he would stay on his side of the net and leave their setter alone.

For a while, things seemed to have calmed down. They played Japan a few more times and came out victorious. Oikawa’s feral hatred towards Kageyama and Ushiwaka seemed to have died down a bit and he mostly just stuck his tongue out petulantly at Iwaizumi whenever he thought no one was looking. That all changed at the FIVB World Cup.

Argentina was playing Japan in the final match of the first round, a must-win having dropped points to Italy and Poland despite beating the US earlier. The match was not going well. Oikawa was once again openly hostile towards Ushijima and Kageyama, though he was unexpectedly friendly towards Japan’s new, ridiculously short opposite hitter. However, all that goodwill evaporated when Oikawa went back to serve. Like always, his jump serve sped like a rocket towards the opposing team. It landed squarely in front of Japan’s libero who was sliding towards it just a moment too late. A perfect ace.

The stadium erupted in cheers and Oikawa held up his hands to celebrate. But suddenly, the cheers turned into a collective groan. The referee had awarded the point to Japan and was pointing at the end line on the Argentinian side. A footfault.

The eagle-eyed linesperson had caught the slightest of footfaults. The ball rolled towards Oikawa who picked it up automatically; even the ball boy thought Argentina had won the point and would get to serve again. The Argentinian team was stunned, dumbly watching as the Japanese players high-fived each other, celebrating their good luck.

Oikawa was still holding the ball when suddenly someone shouted something in Japanese from the other side of the net. The Argentines turned around to see Hajime Iwaizumi gesturing at Oikawa to give the ball back.

None of the Argentinian players could understand what the trainer was saying, but whatever it was, Oikawa clearly did not like it. He started yelling back just as loudly and soon the two were embroiled in a full-blown shouting match. The referee blew his whistle to try to break up the fight, but Oikawa ignored it, continuing to shout at Iwaizumi who was pointing at the score in a mocking manner. Oikawa snapped. He took the ball that was still in his hand and threw it as hard as he could at Iwaizumi who dodged it easily.

The spectators, the players, the team staff, were stunned, but no one was as stunned as Oikawa himself. He slowly turned towards the referee who was already angrily brandishing a yellow card. The entire stadium gasped. This wasn’t soccer. Most volleyball players go an entire career without seeing a yellow card. Many of the spectators didn’t even know yellow cards existed in volleyball. And here was Argentina’s star setter getting penalized for throwing a volleyball not even at the opposing team, but a member of their staff.

Back in the locker room, after a sound loss to Japan, Oikawa was getting ripped to shreds by the captain.

“A yellow card? How do you manage to get a yellow card in international competition? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a yellow card before in my two and a half decades as a volleyball player. I didn’t know refs even carried them around anymore. The people broadcasting this are probably freaking out because they don’t know how to add the graphic for a yellow card next to your name because it literally never happens!”

The other players on the team tried to make themselves look busy changing but each one was secretly listening with rapt attention. Perhaps Oikawa would finally reveal why he hated Team Japan’s trainer so much.

The captain kept chastising Oikawa, “I know you have a history with a lot of the Japanese players, but you represent Argentina now and we can’t have you losing your cool like that over some old grudges from high school. I don’t care how many times you lost to Hajime Iwaizumi when you were a teenager, you can’t be pelting volleyballs at him in front of tens of thousands of people.”

Oikawa laughed quietly, interrupting the captain’s tirade. “Lose? I never lost to Iwa-chan in high school.”

“Then you’re bullying someone you used to beat all the time? What’s wrong with you?” piped the libero from the corner before being hurriedly shushed by his teammates.

“No, it’s not like that. We were on the same team in high school. He was my ace,” Oikawa explained with a smile so dazzling it was hard to believe he was talking about the same man whose face he tried to bash in with a volleyball less than an hour ago.

“You were friends? Then why are you so mean to him?” the libero asked, unable to contain himself.

Oikawa looked around the locker room. All his teammates had given up on trying to seem indifferent and were looking at him intently, waiting for an explanation. Finally, Oikawa sighed and ran his hand through his hair, partially blocking his face in embarrassment. 

“Because he’s my husband, and he gets so smug whenever his team wins.”

**Author's Note:**

> Finally, years of volleyball has paid off and I now know all the annoying ways you can mess up a play and get trolled on by your husband who's on the opposing team.  
> But yeah did you guys know yellow cards were a thing in volleyball? I saw it once when some girl kicked a ball in frustration and it blew my mind. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think of the fic :)


End file.
